Father Matt (My Pastor)

The Deer Hunter

I took Jake deer hunting with me this year for the first time. Of course he was extremely excited, especially since we left mom and his younger brothers at home - just us guys. I'm not quite ready for him to handle high powered firearms yet, so he went only as my spotter, but a hunter none the less.

After seeing nothing but coyotes the first day and having to sit through some miserable weather, I was a little discouraged for him, and kept reminding him that sometimes that's how hunting went. Despite our poor luck the first day, he jumped out of bed and was ready for day two early the next morning even proding me along some to hurry to our stand. After another stretch of nothing, we decided to get down and go for a little walk prior to officially calling it quits for the weekend, although I had pretty much decided the hunt was over.

Just as we were returning to where we had left our gear, I noticed a buck cruising along just inside the woods opposite the field we were walking through. Perfect, I thought, Jake was going to get his deer. With an uncanny lack of hesitation I signaled for him to freeze, dropped my glove from my trigger hand, shouldered my 30-06 and squeezed off a round. For a split second I was confused when I did not see the white flash of tail as the deer jumped and stumbled from the stike of the bullet, but instead it simply disappeared from the view of my scope. I looked at Jake and saw excitement, shock, and bewilderment all in one as he screamed, "you got it!"

It was a direct shot to the head and the deer didn't feel a thing, instant death dropping straight to the ground. The round had gone in one ear and out the other, effectively shattering the skull, leaving only minimal surface wounds, and the only blood to speak of was a trickle leaving its ears and mouth. I tried to maintain a steely composure and act as if this was perfectly typical for me -as if I were some kind of highly skilled and trained outdoor assasin. I'm not sure whether he bought the act or knew there was a lot of luck involved to make that shot from a standing position 150 yards out, but either way, I'm pretty sure we made for a great memory of his first hunt with dad.

First Batch of Homebrew pt. 2

Eighth Day: Siphoning into secondary fermentor. Next weekend I'll bottle.

National Outdoor Leadership School

National Outdoor Leadership School

First Attempt at Brewing, pt. 1

Ingredients

Sterilization

Steeping uncracked grain

Malt Extract

Used uncracked grain

Boiling Wort

Excess Foam

Hops

Anchor Steam Christmas Beer

Kitchen is getting Steamy

Chilling Wort

We've got beer

Primary Fermentation

Obama and McCain - Dance Off!

I love McCain's face about halfway through.

Slow Fade

On this eve of election day, I can't help but reflect on my political views. The short answer is: I'm a republican...but in reality it is much more complicated than that. More specifically, I am both socially and economically conservative, and I disagree with some of what both candidates are bringing to the table. Economically speaking, our country always has, and will continue to go through cyclical periods of relative prosperity versus downturn. To some degree, this is unavoidable regardless of any particular Commander in Chief...life will go on regardless of the tax rate.
Our country's collective value system, however, is not cyclical. I say collective because I truly believe that the majority of Americans still hold traditional values (life, marriage, pride in country, hard work, and self reliance/responsibility) true to heart. The problem is somewhere along the line we've become scared and ashamed to hold our neighbors to the same set of standards. How often do you hear, "Well I wouldn't do that, but it's not my place to tell them they can't." Really? Why not? Or how about, "I don't mix my religion and politics." What? How can this be? I propose that if you truly have religion, or better yet faith in Christ, you can't not mix the two. If you believe it's not right for you, why would it be right for someone else? Why do we as Americans allow the vocal minority to intimidate us into compromising our beliefs? I realize that some people really do think that abortion is ok, or that gay marriage is perfectly acceptable, or that it's ok for hard workers to support the lazy - but most Americans simply do not agree. I don't have facts and figures to back this up, and maybe I'm being naive, but I don't think so.

Unfortunately I have more questions than answers, but it boggles my mind as to why we are so afraid to embrace our own convictions. This doesn't stop at politics, but the weakness bleeds into our everyday life, conversations, and situations. The "right" thing is becoming increasingly less popular to do. I'm sure you can come up with a variety of applicable situations -I know I can.

All that said, I will be voting for McCain. Not because he's on the Republican ticket, and certainly not because I agree with his all of his policies, but I do believe he best represents the values I referenced above...and without these, the other stuff really doesn't matter.

As an ironic twist of fate, my oldest son's football team was featured in the recent Obama infomercial. I cringed at hyperlinking that, so I'll offset it with this one.

Venture to Run

I decided to start a personal blog to journal the running component of my life. It still needs some formatting work, etc., but you can check it out here: Venture to Run

Autumnal Ruminations

Autumn is in full swing finally, and temperatures have begun to fall. We had our first freeze this week on Tuesday. Lethargy not-with-standing, this is my favorite time of year. My main compulsion during this season is to brew a pot of tea, sit in my recliner next to the fireplace (with fire of course), wrap up in a blanket, smoke my pipe and read a good book. On the weekends when I don’t have to get up in the morning I might substitute tea with a bottle of wine or porter. The warming effect of alcohol, along with its penchant for inducing nostalgia, is ideal for brisk Fall evenings.

Outside howling winds rush through the trees, branches clack together, a distant rifle shot from the farm down the road – all enhance the cocoon-like coziness.

Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock

I guess if there was a band that kinda captured those first couple years down at Springfield this would be it. I can remember just laying on my bed with the windows open listening to those characteristic Corgan guitar harmonics. I know they tried to come back...what was it last year?...anyway it's weird to me how they've really just disappeared when they used to be so huge.

Arkansas Cult Leaders Tony and Susie Alamo

"We smoke cigars when we ain't brainwashing."